The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Clock

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 208: THE TERROR

    (Crack Comics 018, 1941)

    Not too much to distinguish this guy: he’s Bumps Bale, a former pinball racketeer (you’re just as likely to see Batman smashing up a bunch of pinball machines as an underground casino or a slot machine in the 40s. Gambling is Bad and Pinball is Gambling, was the attitude) who had hit hard times and decided to go into extorting mayors as a second career. Accordingly, he poisoned city comptroller Ezra Daves and promised Unnamed Mayor here some of the same if one million dollars in small bills was not produced post haste. Sadly for the Terror, the Clock got involved.

    I do have to say that I appreciate the cowl-style mask that the Terror is sporting. Personally I find it far more aesthetically pleasing than the executioner’s hoods and cloth draperies that have been more the norm thusfar.

    (also for those keeping track this is presumably the mayor who took over after the Big Shot was ousted, placing him somewhere on a very spicy alternate Wikipedia page for List of Mayors of New York City)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 201: THE WEREWOLF

    (Crack Comics 015, 1941) 

    I love the Werewolf, and here’s a list of the things I love about him:

    -His name: He has the unlikely handle of Prescott Taunton. A minor point but a good one.

    -His motivation: Prescott is a writer. Specifically, he wrote a book about lycanthropy and then shopped it around enough to get rejected at least seven times. And then he started murdering the people who rejected his work.

    -His ambiguous lycanthropy: Is he a werewolf or just nuts? In the real world the answer would be the latter, but in a comic book universe there’s room for the kind of low-grade feral human style of lycanthropy that appears to be on display here, which I love. He does seem to have undergone some minor physical changes so I’m inclined to believe that he’s the real deal.

    -His ease of capture: Though he puts up a bit of a fight and manages to flee his penthouse lair when the Clock and his pal Pug show up, it’s a very short reprieve as he doesn’t even make it to a proper second location, being knocked out in one punch on the street below.

    It’s been a while since I said that a villain should be BRUNG BACK but I’m saying it now – homicidal sensitive-to-rejection possible werewolf writer is a fun villain hook! Lift the story entirely and give it to the Creeper or someone!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 199: THE CRAB

    (Crack Comics 013, 1941)

    The Crab here is a prime example of the gang boss who goes just over the top enough – and has a good enough moniker – to make the jump to full super-villain.

    His plan – hold the city to ransom for 5 million bucks, then blow up the first ambush the cops set for him to show he means business – is sufficiently out there, and he adds some flourishes like taunting the police via skywriting, but the thing that really does it is his signature: 

    It’s a little crab, oh my god

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 002

    Another collection of those middling muddlers who didn’t quite make it to the minor leagues: the generic costumed villains!

    Silas Greer: 

    Tried to kill his own nephew to get his fortune but was walloped by the Clock (and the Orchid!) for his troubles. (Crack Comics 002, 1940)

    Trag: 

    A gentleman with the unlikely name of Trag dressed up in this unusual mask in an attempt to frame a guy with the only slightly less unusual name of Doctor Prowl before Madam Fatal put the kibosh on him. (Crack Comics 008, 1940)

    Natas: 

    This here fella was the secret head of a protection racket shaking down all of the laundries in town. Scientific sleuth Wizard Wells knew it was one of the laundry owners behind the mask but not which one. Surprising nobody, it was the one named Natas. (Crack Comics 009, 1941)

    General Korn: 

    Behind this mask is one General Korn, who responded to the US government not buying his remote bomb detonator by first blowing up part of Washington DC and then trying to explode the US Senate itself. But little did he know that Black Condor was on that senate, so he got caught post haste. (Crack Comics 013, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 002

    Another collection of those middling muddlers who didn’t quite make it to the minor leagues: the generic costumed villains!

    Silas Greer: 

    Tried to kill his own nephew to get his fortune but was walloped by the Clock (and the Orchid!) for his troubles. (Crack Comics 002, 1940)

    Trag: 

    A gentleman with the unlikely name of Trag dressed up in this unusual mask in an attempt to frame a guy with the only slightly less unusual name of Doctor Prowl before Madam Fatal put the kibosh on him. (Crack Comics 008, 1940)

    Natas: 

    This here fella was the secret head of a protection racket shaking down all of the laundries in town. Scientific sleuth Wizard Wells knew it was one of the laundry owners behind the mask but not which one. Surprising nobody, it was the one named Natas. (Crack Comics 009, 1941)

    General Korn: 

    Behind this mask is one General Korn, who responded to the US government not buying his remote bomb detonator by first blowing up part of Washington DC and then trying to explode the US Senate itself. But little did he know that Black Condor was on that senate, so he got caught post haste. (Crack Comics 013, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 194: THE SCREW

    (Crack Comics 009, 1941)

    I’ll be honest: the Screw is about as generic as it gets. He’s a hooded gang boss who runs a protection racket and just so happens to turn out to be the very head of the Chamber of Commerce who has been pressuring the police to take care of this awful Screw Gang. Pretty regular costumed villain stuff: his only real point of distinction is his fairly cool name.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 194: THE SCREW

    (Crack Comics 009, 1941)

    I’ll be honest: the Screw is about as generic as it gets. He’s a hooded gang boss who runs a protection racket and just so happens to turn out to be the very head of the Chamber of Commerce who has been pressuring the police to take care of this awful Screw Gang. Pretty regular costumed villain stuff: his only real point of distinction is his fairly cool name.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 192: STUPORMAN

    (Crack Comics 008, 1940) 

    Kind of a weird and somewhat problematic case – Stuporman, like the Largest Man in the World before him, is a superhuman man of limited intelligence who is used as a living weapon by crooks until being killed by the hero of the piece, in this case the Clock. He comes from Mongolia, which is, like, the most remote and mysterious place that 1940s comics writers could think of.

    Frankly, the only real reason I include Stuporman is his name, which is clearly a dig at Quality Comics’ Distinguished Competition, particularly in an adventure of the Clock, occasionally advertised as the “oldest and best comic book character.” And now he has defeated the big dumb strongman! He has won!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 192: STUPORMAN

    (Crack Comics 008, 1940) 

    Kind of a weird and somewhat problematic case – Stuporman, like the Largest Man in the World before him, is a superhuman man of limited intelligence who is used as a living weapon by crooks until being killed by the hero of the piece, in this case the Clock. He comes from Mongolia, which is, like, the most remote and mysterious place that 1940s comics writers could think of.

    Frankly, the only real reason I include Stuporman is his name, which is clearly a dig at Quality Comics’ Distinguished Competition, particularly in an adventure of the Clock, occasionally advertised as the “oldest and best comic book character.” And now he has defeated the big dumb strongman! He has won!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 191: THE DEVIL

    (Crack Comics 007, 1940) 

    There is no textual evidence for this, but since this guy is dressed exactly like the unnamed boss of the Skull Gang (plus some rad horns) and uses the very similar tactic of dosing his minions (the Robbers from Hades – good name) with toxins that make them all shriveled and weird (and in this case more pliable and obedient), I like to think that it’s the same guy back for another shot at making his fortune in the crime boss game, albeit without taking the very sensible precaution of, say, switching cities or otherwise trying to avoid the Clock. This time, alas, he meets his end, so we won’t be treated to a green-hooded man with a tail leading squads of Demonic Monkey Marauders, or a green-hooded man with a tinfoil halo commanding his Larceny Angels. Sad days.